Happy Wednesday! Monday was redemption day for competitive eater Joey Chestnut, who was uninvited from this year’s annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest due to his endorsement of a vegan hot dog. But Chestnut cemented his status as the greatest of all time earlier this week, downing 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes and easily beating Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, who came out of retirement to eat a measly 66.
You come at the king, you best not miss.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that a Russian aerial attack on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Tuesday killed at least 50 people, some of whom were soldiers, and injured 270 others after two ballistic missiles hit a military educational facility and a hospital. Ukrainian authorities reported they were conducting search operations to find more than a dozen people believed to have been buried under the rubble. Zelensky also renewed pleas for additional air defense systems from the West and for Western countries to remove restrictions on the use of long-range missiles to strike deep in Russia. “We say again and again to everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror,” Zelensky said. “Air defense systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine, not somewhere in a warehouse.”
- Later on Tuesday, Zelensky said in an interview that Ukraine plans to hold onto territory it has seized in Russia’s Kursk region, describing it as essential to his “victory plan” while adding that Ukraine has no long-term interests in admitting the land within its national borders. “We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” Zelensky said. “For now, we need it.”
- According to Ukrainian public broadcasting, a Ukrainian supervisory board on Tuesday fired Volodymyr Kudrytsky, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the country’s state-owned electricity grid operator, which has faced criticism in recent months for its supposedly inadequate measures to protect electrical infrastructure. Other Ukrainian outlets reported yesterday that the board’s decision to sack Kudrytsky was hastened by the immense damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that Russian airstrikes inflicted over the weekend. Two Ukrenergo board members resigned in protest to the chief executive’s dismissal, saying the supervisory board’s decision was “politically motivated” and that there was “no grounds for it.”
- British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced on Monday the United Kingdom would immediately suspend part of its weapons shipments to Israel, citing concerns that the weapons could be used to transgress international humanitarian law. The move by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government—in power since early July—will suspend 30 of the 350 arms export licenses the country currently has in place with Israel. “The assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy told the country’s parliament, though he added that there is “no doubt” Hamas endangers civilians by embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the decision—which came on the heels of Hamas’ execution of six hostages in Gaza—“shameful,” and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Starmer and Lammy of “abandoning Israel.”
- The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed terrorism charges against seven of the top leaders of Hamas, including posthumously charging the former political head of the terrorist organization, Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Haniyeh’s successor, Yahya Sinwar. Two others charged are also deceased. The seven have, according to the DOJ’s indictment, overseen and enabled decades of terrorism by Hamas, including organizing the October 7 attack on Israel. “We are investigating Hersh [Goldberg-Polin’s] murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland, referring to Hamas’ recent execution of Goldberg-Polin, whom it was holding hostage in Gaza. “The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last.”
- A Venezuelan judge on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Edmundo González—the opposition candidate whom the U.S. government declared the legitimate victor of the country’s presidential election last month—on seemingly trumped-up charges of criminal conspiracy. Venezuela’s authoritarian dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and his government are widely believed to have reported fraudulent electoral results in favor of Maduro, sparking nationwide protests. Authorities have been unable to detain González, whose whereabouts are unknown, and he has not made any public appearances since the day after the election.
- At least 129 people died on Tuesday—and 59 more were injured—after security forces thwarted an attempted mass jailbreak at a high-security prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital city, Kinshasa, resulting in a stampede among the inmates. Security guards shot and killed 24 inmates attempting to escape after initial warning shots, according to Congo Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani. He added that “jostling” and “suffocation” were responsible for the remaining deaths. It’s unclear whether any prisoners successfully escaped.
- The FBI on Tuesday arrested Linda Sun, a former senior aide to New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, on charges of allegedly working as an unregistered foreign agent for the Chinese government. The 65-page indictment alleges Sun used her position to benefit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in exchange for financial kickbacks, including millions of dollars, as well as gifts and benefits to her friends and family. Sun and her husband—who was arrested and indicted alongside her—face 11 federal charges for carrying out requests from the Chinese government and CCP, including blocking Taiwanese officials from access to senior New York state officials even as they greenlit that access for Chinese officials. A spokesman for Hochul said Sun’s employment was “terminated” in March 2023 when the governor’s office discovered “evidence of misconduct.”
- At least 12 migrants, including six children, died on Tuesday—and several others were injured—when a small boat carrying more than 60 people capsized in the English Channel shortly after it departed northern France for the English coast. Rescuers have retrieved at least 50 people from the water, and search operations are still ongoing for two additional migrants who are missing. The incident is the deadliest such episode this year in the English Channel, where migrants, aided by human smugglers, routinely try to cross into the United Kingdom.
The Economy Xi Wants
China’s economic woes have been the subject of many a headline over the last few years, and the bad vibes appear to be reflected in the country’s online sentiment, with censors and state media trying to stifle discussions about a new era of Chinese economic decline affectionately referred to as a “garbage time of history.”
Signs of the country’s struggles continue to abound, but Beijing is doubling down on “Chinese-style modernization” policies that some economists argue will worsen the distortions already plaguing the world’s second-largest economy as trade tensions with the U.S. and other developed economies remain elevated.
After China eased its “zero-COVID” lockdown policies in late 2022, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hoped the country’s economy would come roaring back to pre-pandemic growth levels that had once been a feature of modern Chinese markets—China’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 9.5 percent between 1979 and 2018, according to World Bank data. But the economy is still sputtering a year and a half later, dragged down by …
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Worth Your Time
- Nature is capable of many wondrous feats, like creating the marvel that is a diamond—but then again, so are humans. “Lab diamonds are a testament to the principle that what nature can do, man is capable of doing better,” Javid Lakha argued for Works in Progress. “At the upper end of the market, it is not possible to tell the difference between lab diamonds and mined diamonds with the naked eye. … In Western civilization, a pernicious belief has taken hold, that what is ‘natural’ is good and what is man-made is inferior or harmful. Wordsworth, in his poem ‘The Tables Turned’, expresses it best: ‘Sweet is the lore which nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things; – We murder to dissect.’ But human intellect and the scientific method are the foundations of our prosperity. Nature is not a superior craftsman: it is our resource, and we can and should improve upon it. In materials science, this has been obvious for a long time. … Lab diamonds are a further testament to this.”
- Can you listen to too much music? “As Jars of Clay write in their song ‘Headphones,’ there is a temptation to retreat from real emotions through sound: ‘We go our separate ways … with our headphones on,’” Peter Biles observed in Plough. “Music yielded instances of healing, grace, and beauty, but I also used it to manufacture emotions and escape the burden of silence. … Letting music wash over every moment of life without cultivating places for quiet is like reading the classics and never pausing to reflect on their meaning. We become chronic skimmers, afloat in the ocean of noise with our eyes sleeplessly staring into space. Beautiful music has tended to hit me at unexpected times. … I’ve never been able to wrangle a transcendent experience like a cowboy ropes an elusive bull. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve ended up restless and in an emotional flux—focused on myself instead of on the divine. One thing any of us can do, perhaps, is to choose to listen not only to music but to the silence. And we can listen to music in ways that brings us closer together rather than silos us.”
Presented Without Comment
The Hill: Trump On Why Powerful People Got Close To Epstein: ‘He Was A Good Salesman’
“He was a good salesman. He was a hailing, hearty type of guy,” Trump said. “He had some nice assets that he’d throw around like islands, but a lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them.”
Also Presented Without Comment
Washington Post: Hvaldimir, Beloved Beluga Whale and Alleged Russian Spy, Found Dead
In the Zeitgeist
We have to admit that many entries in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best TV episodes were before our time—but some were just wrong. (The actual best episode of For All Mankind, for example, is “Hi, Bob.”) We can’t argue, though, with this episode of I Love Lucy cracking the top 20:
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: Nick enters the debate (🔒) over how traditional conservatives can best reform the Republican Party.
- On the podcasts: Chris joins Jonah on The Remnant for some rank punditry.
- On the site: Joseph Roche interviews Russian prisoners of war captured during Ukraine’s Kursk offensive, and Kevin weighs in on the idea of strategic voting.
Let Us Know
What would crack your own personal list of best television episodes of all time?
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